Supreme Court ruling backs firefighters over No. Hampton

NORTH HAMPTON — The plan to train town firefighters to become paramedics can finally move forward now that a New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling has ended a three-year legal battle between the town and the firefighters' union over the issue.

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By Shir Haberman

seacoastonline.com

By Shir Haberman

Posted May. 9, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Shir Haberman
Posted May. 9, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

NORTH HAMPTON — The plan to train town firefighters to become paramedics can finally move forward now that a New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling has ended a three-year legal battle between the town and the firefighters' union over the issue.

"The (high court) today decided...; that the town should have negotiated wages and benefits when it created a paramedic program within the Fire Department," Town Administrator Paul Apple wrote in a press release issued Wednesday. "The Select Board believes that the Supreme Court has clearly identified the roles that both the town and the union must play in determining whether North Hampton should have a paramedic program and whether the town can afford such a program."

It's been more than three years since voters at the 2011 Town Meeting approved spending $24,000 to train town firefighters as paramedics. Implementation, however, has not gone forward due to a legal challenge from the union and appeals by the town.

In August 2011, the Select Board approved a plan to institute a program to train Fire Department paramedics, but without first getting the firefighters' union to agree to a change in its contract with the town recognizing the program. It was that failure that prompted Local 3211 of International Association of Fire Fighters to file an unfair labor practice grievance with the Public Employees Labor Relations Board later that year.

"We feel that the way the plan was announced is an attempt to circumvent the union," then-union representative and firefighter Mike Tully said at the time. "They have to do it the right way."

Then-Town Administrator Steve Fournier responded to Tully's claim in September 2011. He said it was not the intent of the town to leave the union out of the process.

However, in a unanimous decision released in September 2012, the PELRB sided with the union on both the paramedic grievance and one concerning the implementation of a new health care benefit option by the Select Board without union approval.

"By directly dealing with employees in this manner, the town bypassed and breached its statutory duty and contractual obligation to bargain the terms and conditions of employment with the union, and also violated the corresponding prohibition on bargaining terms and conditions of employment with unit employees," the decision read.

Specific to the paramedic issue, the labor relations board ruled that "an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) in the town Fire Department is already a bargaining unit position that is represented by the union, and allowing the town to unilaterally establish terms and conditions for an EMT with a paramedic level of licensure provides the town with an unfair preliminary advantage in the bargaining process."

Soon after that ruling the Select Board filed an appeal with the PELRB, which was quickly rejected.

Select Board Chairman Jim Maggiore announced at a subsequent board meeting in 2012, that, while the Select Board would not contest the PELRB decision on the expansion of health care benefit options, it had instructed its attorney to pursue an appeal of the ruling on the paramedic position to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Maggiore said the information on which the PERLB decision was based was incorrect.

"The (PELRB) said that since the town had a position of paramedic, it can't create another paramedic position (with a different pay rate)," Maggiore said. "We just had people working in the department who had (paramedic) qualifications, but no actual position."

Then-Selectman Phil Wilson said at that same meeting that, although the firefighter union contract passed by voters in 2012 included a process for training and paying paramedics, there still was an important issue that needed to be resolved by the Supreme Court.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court resolved that issue to the satisfaction of the Select Board, Apple said.

"The Supreme Court affirmed the town's right to make the decision to create the program, terming it a 'greater power,'" the town administrator wrote in his press release. "The 'lesser power,' that of unilaterally determining the initial wage, hours and conditions of employment (for the paramedics), must be negotiated with the union at the outset."

It remains to be seen, however, just when the training program will begin given the town's fragile financial situation, Apple said.